LADY DUFF GORDON.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR."]
SIR.—In your article of October 9 on "Lady Duff Gordon's Last Letters," mention is made of her great success as a doctor among the Arabs ; and also, in an extract from her work, of her friend Sheykh Yussuf.
Last winter I had the pleasure of paying my respects to Sheykh Yussuf, who was living at Esneh, between Thebes and the First Cataract, though his private residence is at Thebes. He is now the head Sheykh between the latter town and the Second Cataract, —a by no means insignificant post.
Amongst other things, he inquired, as indeed most of the Arabs do, if I had known Lady Duff Gordon, and if I had read her book, which he said that he possessed. Seated on his divan, he certainly looked the picture of comfortable and placid health, but the con- versation turning upon Lady Duff Gordon's medical powers, he informed me that he had been ailing, and that she had cured him of his illness ; but then a partial dissatisfaction seeming to cloud his gratification at the reminiscence, when he had finished his sentence, I turned to his nephew for explanation. The latter had introduced, me and acted as interpreter. He said with a smile, "My uncle says she made him put on too much mutton," and further explained his dread lest rotundity, though possibly a glory to the woman, as St. Paul says of long hair, might be considered a shame unto the man. After all, the poor man only looked
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